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Thursday, 24 October 2013

Firstly, a big welcome to my latest followers, I am so thrilled to have you along on my creative journey! A quick post as I don't want to be on the last minute with my tag this month.

I absolutely love Halloween and I love Tim's tag for October, but sadly I don't have any of the new dies that he has used.......so once again I have had to improvise. You can see Tim's beautiful tag HERE.

And here is mine:

I created the background with Ripe Persimmon, Seedless Preserves and Scattered Straw Distress Paints, following Tim's instructions. The edges were distressed and aged with Black Soot Distress Ink. The tag has been stamped randomly with the script element from the Chemist stamp set - well I had to get that in there somewhere!

The bats and the bottom part of the dome (a Tim die) have been coated with Glossy Accents and then liberally coated with Black Soot Distress Glitter - I am not a huge glitter fan but these distress ones are lovely, not too sparkly and quite chunky, so easy to handle.

The top part of the dome has been done in two parts. The background has been embossed and lightly coated with Pumice Stone Distress Ink. The see through element of the dome is one of my latest obsessions - it has been cut using Wendy Vecchi's wonderful Clearly for Art. I gave it a coat of Glue and Seal, allowed this to dry and then coated it quite thickly with Clear Rock Candy Distress Paint - an idea by Wendy Vecchi that Tim shared with us recently, but with a glass vial. I thought I would try it out with Clearly for Art and it worked really well. I waited until it dried and then I gently heated the CfA and shaped the dome slightly so that I could fit the bats underneath. Sadly, this is one of those pieces that looks much better in real life but hopefully the close-up gives you the general idea.

To finish off I stamped trick or treat from the Simple Sayings stamp set and added some vintage ribbon to the top which has been coloured with Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint and then stenciled with the Burlap stencil.

Thanks so much for looking, I will be missing for a couple of days so will not be able to visit your lovely creations but I hope to catch up with you again soon! Big hugs, Anne xx

Monday, 21 October 2013

I am sharing something today that I have been working on for several weeks. The very talented Richele Christensen shared a Tim Holtz Configurations BookHERE and invited people to make one along with her. Since I love Halloween and I loved what she had created I decided to join in and I have had so much fun making this. As ever, I did not have all of the elements that Richele used so I had to improvise on quite a few things but I am thrilled with the result and will be displaying it in my window on All Hallows Eve.

Richele has been doing the tutorial in stages but has been ill recently so I have taken the liberty of finishing the box off myself by following the photo on her blog. I needed to get it finished because, as I will not be around much over the next week.

There are quite a few photos but not too much by way of explanation because Richele has gone into great detail, so if you want to make one you can follow her brilliant tutorial. It does look much better in real life, but to see it better just click on the photos.

This is the front of the closed box. Tim Holtz very kindly gave Richele permission to scale up the scary house die onto a template which was used to cut the house shape from the box cover - that was the hardest part because the configurations boxes are very strong. The moon, bats, wrought iron fence and tree are all die cuts, all TH with the exception of the fence.

This is the inside of the whole box, each box has been trimmed with tissue tape.

The skeleton is holding a lighted lamp, the battery pack is threaded through and I'll show you where later.

These are my favourite sections, I love Tim's new Movers and Shapers clock die. It was hard to photograph the bone dust but this section is actually a working shaker box and is filled with broken up Tim's Idea-ology wishbones.

For the bottom half of the box, my friend Mo helped me out with the owl (a new die that I do not have) and she created a melt pot one which I have coloured. She also gave me the wonderful dome bottles at the top of the box and the fence on the front - thank you Mo!

This is a view of the back of the box. The wire from the light has been threaded across the top and down the right side, hidden by Tim's Laboratorie papers and the battery pack is hidden behind that die cut bottle.

This is just a view from the inside of the box, looking out, to give you an idea of the shape of the house. The box itself is approx 12 inches by 9 inches so there is lots of space to work in.

Finally - NOT FOR THOSE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION - please look away now if you have!

I was so inspired by Lynne's recent spooky skeleton creation (Mr and Mrs Bones) that I created one of my own. I did this for my soon to be Son-in-Law, who is a History Teacher and loves skulls, a bit like me. Lynne, these photos are just for you!

Mr and Mrs Skeleton are decked out in Graphic 45 Steampunk papers and Mr Skeleton is sitting in a Tando Creative coffin........... his top hat is handmade. Mrs S wears a skirt of lace, coloured with Black Soot Distress Paint. They are ready to go to the Halloween ball.......

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Well, that's the theme over at Our Creative Corner for this month and the wonderful Julia has given us a Halloween Challenge. Julia has asked us to create a Halloween tag with some surface texture on it.

I absolutely love using stencils and I am getting better with embossing paste (I won some Wendy Vecchi paste recently and it is wonderful to use) but I chose to use a dry embossed base for my tag.

In fact, a lovely American blog friend sent me this Tim Holtz embossed background and I knew it would be perfect for this tag. It has a beautiful raised texture which I sanded and then went over it with Pumice Stone Distress Ink to give it even more definition. The cat and bats are die cuts, as is the fence. The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Simple Sayings set.

The cobweb in the corner is my new Tim Holtz strip die, I love this one! On the right side, I wanted to add even more texture to the surface of the tag and I used Frantage - Aged Black Embossing Enamel which has a lovely sheen to it.

The ribbon is vintage seam binding which I coloured with Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint and then stencilled over with a burlap stencil. The skull and crossbones is Idea-ology and I just glued this to the ribbon, after giving him some orange Ranger Stickles eyes.

I really hope you will pop over to Our Creative Corner to see what my talented teamies have come up with and then I hope you will join in this wonderful challenge. You never know, you could be our winner and be spotlighted or one of our top three. We would love to have you join us and you have until the 28th to get your entry in!

I must say a big thank you to my latest followers, it is lovely to have you along. Thanks so much for visiting, hope to see you soon. Big hugs, Anne x

Sunday, 13 October 2013

I was not really going to show any of my Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 stuff because I don't actually make anything, I just do the techniques and put the tags/elements in a file for reference and for inspiration. Lots of others made amazing creations and posted them in Tim's Gallery and I so admire their ability to do the class and then create something straight away! I am a bit late to the party, too late for the Gallery, but better late than never I guess.

This year I made a tag folder to hold all my tags, I tried to make it look a bit like a book, so that it will sit on my craft shelf for inspiration:

The tag book has been made with No. 10 tags and some Kraft card to form the pockets. On the right it has been filled with all of the tags I made over the 5 wonderful days of learning.

I added Tim's Creative Chemistry 102 logo.

I will add some stained ribbon to the top to finish it off although it is free-standing, but I think it will finish it off nicely.

So here are my efforts over the 5 days.

Day 1 was all about Distress Paint - there are so many ways to use them!

Day 2 was my favourite by far! It's all about using Layering Stencils - loved doing these tags.

Day 3 was using Distress in different ways - love the faux crackled glass technique...devised by Wendy Vecchi and great fun to do. I am obsessed with these little glass domes, both have the technique applied and I have lightly coloured one of them with Cool Peri alcohol ink.

Day 4 was all about Alcohol Inks, not my favourite medium but I really enjoyed learning the techniques.

Day 5 was all about Embossing Techniques, I love, love, love the chalkboard technique!

If you have not joined in yet and you want to learn these amazing techniques, you still can, as long as you have completed Creative Chemistry 101 (which is still available to do). Check out Tim's blog for details HERE. I have to admit I have really enjoyed doing CC102 and have learned so much already.

Monday, 7 October 2013

Hi Everyone, thanks so much for all your comments on my spooky arch. Have I said how much I love Halloween...........? Not that we get many children coming to the door these days....

Just a quick post today. I am going to show you some Trick or Treat bags that I created with Ignacio of Nicecrane's wonderful Spooky Halloween ATC Pack and some Kraft card stock. Ignacio also does some fabulous Halloween cones, which are very easy to construct, but I wanted to do something a little different for our older Grandchildren.

This is the front of the bags, they are 3" x 5" and approx 2" deep in size but fairly sturdy because I used good quality Kraft card (a gift from my lovely friend Mo of Almocraft). The one on the left has a couple of die cuts added (cobweb and Trick or Treat) and the one on the right has a stamped background and wording and some wonderful silk autumn leaves (a gift from another crafty friend Jo). The little dome in the middle is a Tim Holtz corked dome and has a sparkly skull inside.

This is a view of the back, more wonderful Nicecrane ATC images, a couple of die cuts on the left and stamping and a die cut bat on the right. To finish off I punched holes in the top and threaded thick wire through the left one and hessian cord through the right one. I did not do a template for the bags but a good scoreboard and an A4 piece of card is all that is required.

You can find the images I used HERE. Ignacio has some wonderful Halloween images, some scary, some just delightful, I hope you will check them out as they are idea for quick and easy makes.

Finally, I wanted to show you a wonderful Gothic home decor piece I purchased from the lovely Ali of Ali-Craft. They do the most fantastic Gothic/Steampunk gifts.

I am entering my little bags at Craft My Life where the October/November Challenge is 'Anything Goes - No Cards).

Hope you are all well. Tomorrow we will be announcing the winner and top 3 over at Our Creative Corner, I hope you might find time to have a look. I will be engrossed in Day 2 of Tim's Creative Chemistry 102.... Big Hugs, Anne x

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Hello everyone, it's nice to have you visit. I have a slight obsession with all things Autumn, Halloween in particular. I miss the days when I made costumes for the children and have to satisfy myself with crafty things instead!

Whilst searching the internet for Halloween goodies (so difficult here in the UK) I found some spooky arches by Tando Creative and some other bits and pieces which may appear in a future post. I had to dig out my Tim Holtz skull stamp from the Apothecary set, my favourite, next to the Chemist set of stamps, to make this simple Halloween decoration.

The frame itself comes in four parts, the base and the third layer were painted in the lush new Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint and then overstamped with a cobweb stamp by Stampendous. The second and top layer, which includes the large cobweb were painted in Black Soot Distress Paint. Before assembling, I stamped the skull on the base, then stamped another skull on white card with Wendy Vecchi Archival ink in the fabulous Watering Can - much more subtle than black. I cut out the eyes and part of the mouth from the separate stamped piece and added this, raised up with foam pads, for dimension.

I added the spooky orange gem eyes and the spider who has a bottom glittered with Ranger Stickles in Paprika. To finish off, I filled an Idea-ology jar with some cream coloured embossing powder and added a Tim Rub on - bone dust........ love that!

The frame is quite sturdy and I added a little stand at the back so it will sit in the window on Halloween night.